rarely pure and never simple
by airbefore
Summary: The moonlight casts a silver glow across the walls, a shimmering haze that draws her attention, the edges waving as the clouds roll past. She can feel the remnants of the champagne working through her body, the little bubbles hitching a ride in her blood, making her head float and her skin tingle. *One Shot. Complete*


**Disclaimer:**All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.

**AN**: Happy New Year. This was my first year in the Castle fandom and you guys really helped to make it awesome. Thanks so much. Also, this was borne of a trope meme on tumblr. I never thought I'd write truth or dare fic (because, well, it's cheesy) but this kinda got away from me. So, yeah.

(PS- Aly, this one's for you. You know why.)

* * *

"_The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple"_

_~Oscar Wilde_

The moonlight casts a silver glow across the walls, a shimmering haze that draws her attention, the edges waving as the clouds roll past. She can feel the remnants of the champagne working through her body, the little bubbles hitching a ride in her blood, making her head float and her skin tingle. Or maybe it's his fingers, feather light and teasing, skimming the surface of her stomach, ripples of goosebumps radiating out from each fingertip. His lips connect with the curve of her shoulder and she sighs, neck twisting in his direction.

"I'm not playing truth or dare with you."

"Why not?"

"Because we're not fourteen."

He leans over her, propped up on one elbow. Amusement flickers in his eyes when he slides his his hand down and she arches into his touch. "Come on, Kate," he hums, the swirl of his fingertips on her inner thigh sending sparks shooting up her spine, "don't be a spoilsport. It's New Year's Eve."

"No, it's," Kate lifts her head and peers over his shoulder, "two in the morning. Officially January first."

"Even better. Let's start the new year off right."

"We did that already," she laughs, dropping back down to the pillow and crossing her legs to trap his travelling fingers. "Or did you forget?"

"Forget how you jumped me the moment the front door closed behind Lanie and Esposito? Never. I still want to play, though."

"No."

"What if -" he leans down, drags damp lips along the crest of her collarbone - "we make it sexy truth or dare?"

"Not strip?" Her voice shakes as he twists his wrist and easily pries her legs apart, his hand creeping higher.

Castle laughs, breath gusting warmly over her neck. "We're already naked."

"Is this just an elaborate ploy to get oral sex?" She raises an eyebrow at him, her breath catching in her chest as his fingers trace the crease at the top of her right thigh. "Because you know you just have to ask."

"No, it's not a ploy for oral sex." His teeth are sharp against her neck. "Just go with it, Beckett."

"Fine." She sighs dramatically, giving him the obligatory resistance she knows he secretly loves because it makes him feel like he's won a shiny prize when she eventually capitualtes. "Truth."

Castle smiles against her skin, mouth trailing down the slope of her breast. "When," he murmurs, tongue circling her nipple, pulling it into a rigid peak, "did you first touch yourself while thinking about me?"

Fuck.

"What makes you think I ever did?" Her eyes slip closed as he sucks on her nipple in earnest, the messy flop of his bangs brushing over the side of her breast. "Is your ego really _that _massive?"

"That first night," Castle lifts his head and stares her down, aroused defiance in his eyes, "when you put your hand over mine and pushed my fingers where you wanted them -" he presses two fingers against her, forcing her to bite back a moan as he slides down and sinks them into her, curving up in a way that makes her toes curl. "You closed your eyes and kissed me and there was this little sigh at the back of your throat. Like you were finally getting something you'd wanted for a long time." Her back bows, fingers digging into the warmth of his chest, when he pushes deeper into her, his palm grinding into her clit. "I want to know _when_, Beckett. When did you give into it?"

"The night of the Naked Heat book party." She nips hard at the side of his neck as she spits out the words, punishing him for the power he has over her. "I wanted -" The words catch in her throat as he slips a third finger into her and twists, making her body clench tightly around him.

"You wanted?"

"You. I wanted you."

Castle rewards her confession with the heat of his mouth, licking a wide, wet stripe across the arc of her ribs. His teeth skim the underside of her breast and she whimpers, her body rolling into him.

"Tell me about it," he demands, lips gliding over the curve of her shoulder. Kate presses herself against the wall of his chest, her left leg wrapping over his hip, trapping his hand between their bodies.

"Uh-uh, Castle." She kisses his chest, licks her way up the column of his throat, nibbling at his adam's apple as she ascends. "That's not how the game works. My turn now." She reaches between them and grasps him, her fingers firm around his base. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth." Kate furrows her brow and he laughs, the vibration transferring down the cable of his arm, sending his palm gliding across her with amazing friction. "Not the answer you were expecting, Detective?"

She grinds down into his palm and closes her eyes, teeth sinking into her bottom lip as Castle chuckles again. Her cuffs and badge make regular appearances in their role playing and he knows how much she loves it when he uses her title, the way it makes her feel powerful and fierce. Rolling her hips against him, she drags the words up from somewhere inside her chest, forcing a calm into her tone that she's far from actually feeling. "I'll have to save my dare for another day then." Opening her eyes, she twists her hand around him, thumb smoothing up the bottom of his shaft. "Guess you'll just have to wait to see what exactly is in that box I hid in the back of your closet."

Castle groans and pushes himself into her palm, his free hand fisting in her hair and tilting her head back. "You play dirty."

"You like it." Kate pushes on his chest until he rolls onto his back, her body draping over his. "And you're the one that picked truth."

"A choice I am deeply regretting in this moment."

"Your loss." She lifts off his hand, trying not to whimper at the sudden emptiness. His wet fingers grip her hip as she swings herself off him and twists to the side, her hair brushing over his thighs, mouth hovering above his tip. "Have you ever written a sex scene about us?"

His hand slides from her hip to her ass, fingers kneading into the soft flesh. "You don't want to know when I first masturbated while thinking about you?"

Kate laughs and drops her head, tongue flicking against his base. "Come on, Castle. We both know it was about ten minutes after I walked away from you in that alley." Her lips flutter up the length of him and he bucks, hand clenching tightly against the curve of her ass.

"Actually," he huffs, left arm crossing over his body, his hand caressing her breast as he tenses his abs and lifts his shoulder off the bed, "it was about an hour and a half after you interrogated me the first time." She meets his eyes and grins before taking him in her mouth and slowly sinking down, tongue swirling in opposition to her hand. "Why - _shit_, Beckett - why do you think I came back the next day?"

Lifting off him, she strokes him with her hand, spreading the moisture from her mouth. "You mean it wasn't because you felt the burning desire to bring a killer to justice?" Kate twists her palm and Castle moans, eyes rolling back in his head. "Color me shocked."

His eyes are dark when he opens them, the blue nothing more than thin halos around the dark pits of his pupils. "I definitely felt a burning desire for something," he growls, hand moving over between her legs, fingers pushing deep inside her again. Gasping, she rears back into his touch and arches her spine before falling onto him, mouth and fingers working him over. The wet sound of his fingers pumping into her spurs her on and she moans around him as the edge of his thumb brushes along her clit, the rough pad pulling at the sensitive skin.

"I want - Fuck, Kate - I want -" His words get caught in a deep groan as he pulls his fingers out of her and leans to the side, mouth connecting sloppily with the curve of her waist. He tugs at her insistently and she releases him, lets him roll her body over onto his until she's sitting on his abdomen, his left knee pressing between her shoulder blades. Gripping her hips, he pulls her forward onto his chest and lifts his head, mouth skimming over her as he speaks. "I want to taste you."

Her heels dig into the bed, nails cutting into his ribs when he buries his face between her legs. His tongue is a hurricane against her, spinning and swirling with relentless speed and force. Her hips lift and he laces his fingers over her stomach, holding her body down against his. Kate leans forward and moves her grip to his hair, holding his mouth where she wants it as he sucks and licks at her. She can feel his jaw working against her thigh; can see the smug grin pulling at the corner of his lips even as he moans into her.

Bending her legs, she hooks her ankles over his biceps and pushes to her knees, pressing the back of his head down into the mattress with the weight of her body. Kate rolls her hips and grins down at him, one hand lifting to cup her breast. The sound of his hand connecting with her ass echoes in the shadows and she pitches forward, catching herself with her free hand. Castle moans again and keeps moving against her, his hands kneading into her ass, pulling her down harder onto his mouth. One of his hands drifts away and she looks back, sees him stroking himself, hips pumping into the air.

"Don't," she pants, looking down into his wide eyes and brushing the sweaty hair off his forehead. "Don't you dare come, Castle."

"If I can't, you can't," he mumbles, lips never full breaking from her skin. He sucks her clit into the cup of his tongue and rolls against her, pulling a ragged cry from her throat.

"Then you're gonna have to - have to stop _that_," she whimpers, grinding down into the pressure of his mouth. Castle grunts a dissenting noise and increases the suction, filling his mouth with her. She comes on a scream, his name caught somewhere in the middle, and collapses onto her chest, her limbs turning to water underneath her.

Castle shifts out from under her and she feels the bed dip as he moves around, his knees pressing down on either side of her hips. His mouth traces through the valley of her spine, lapping at the boulders of her vertebrae, nipping at the steep ridges of her scapulae. She can feel his erection bumping into her ass as he reaches her neck, lips pressing into the sweaty hollow behind her ear.

"Yes."

Kate cracks one eye open, tries to focus on his face through the haze of her orgasm. "What?"

"I was answering your question. Yes, I've written sex scenes about us." His voice drops to a dangerous whisper sending shivers down her spine. "Ones that are far too filthy to ever make it into one of my books."

The heat from his body melts her into a pliable puddle on the bed, her bones jelly. Castle presses himself into the dampness between her thighs and she arches into him, craving the thick heat of him inside her. He teases her, dragging his erection through her arousal, bumping into her clit on every pass, until she begs him, her hands fisted tightly into the sheets. He pushes into her in one hard stroke and they both groan deeply as his pelvis presses into her ass.

Shifting his weight back, Castle grips her by the hips and starts to move in long, slow strokes that have her writhing underneath him, her mouth open and biting at her forearm. "Truth or dare?" He drawls out the question and she can hear the strained laughter in his voice, can feel the growing tension in his hips as the speed of this thrusts increases.

"Truth," she pants, lifting up onto her hands and knees, whimpering at the change in the angle.

"When did you fall in love with me?"

Kate freezes and tosses her head to the side, looking back over her shoulder to meet his gaze. Her heart seizes at the look of wide-eyed shock on his face, his mouth open and flapping soundlessly. Slowly, she leans forward, letting him slide out of her before she rolls onto her back, holding her hands out for him. He stares at her for a moment before dropping down into her embrace, his nose pressing into the side of her neck as she wraps her arms and legs around him.

"I don't know."

"Kate - God, I'm sorry. We can - can we just pretend like I didn't say anything?"

"I don't know," she repeats, fingers running through his hair, nails scraping across his sweaty scalp. "It wasn't a conscious process." His ribs press against hers as he sucks in a deep breath, hands working under her shoulder blades, holding her body to his. "It was just there one day, taking up all the space inside my chest. I don't know when it happened. But it did." She pulls on his head, needing to see his face for this. Castle lifts himself onto his elbows, hovering over her with gentle eyes that shine with the love she knows is reflected in her own. It's been there for years and she was never any better at hiding it than he was, stopped even attempting to long before she showed up on his doorstep, soaked from head to toe with it.

"I love you, Castle." His eyes slip closed at her quiet words, chest shaking with a bone deep sigh. Kate runs her fingers over his face, tracing the ridge of his brow, the slope of his nose, the gentle curve of his lips. "This wasn't really how I had planned on telling you -" he opens his eyes and she smiles up at him, wide and toothy, relief washing through her chest when an answering smile tilts at his lips - "but I suppose it's kind of fitting."

"We do have a tendency to blurt things out in the heat of the moment."

"_We_?" She arches an eyebrow at him, fingers twisting into the fine hair at the nape of his neck. "Uh uh. Don't try to lump me into that. You're the one that can't control your own mouth."

Castle slips his hands out from under her, palms sliding up her arms until he reaches her wrists. Gently, he pulls her hands from his hair and laces their fingers together, lifting her arms up over her head. He leans down slowly, eyes trained on hers as he presses their mouths together, tongue sweeping hotly over her bottom lip. Kate whines into the kiss, her hips lifting off the bed, desperate to feel him inside of her again. Castle releases one of her hands long enough to position himself and slide into her, rocking slowly in the cradle of her hips as he twists his fingers back through hers. Breaking the kiss he pushes the backs of her hands into the bed and lifts over her.

"I'd say that was a pretty skillful display of what I can do with my mouth." The smile on his lips slips from smug to something infinitely softer as he stares down into her face with wide, hazy eyes. "I love you, Kate." Her fingers tighten in his and he drops his head down until his forehead rests on hers. "I love you."

"I know." She kisses his chin, his cheek, the corner of his eye. "I know. I love you too. So much, Castle. So mu-"

He swallows her words with his kiss, their bodies slamming into one another. He grinds into her in short, hard strokes that she struggles to meet as her orgasm gathers at the base of her spine, her muscles coiling with delicious tension. Castle stiffens, spilling her name into her open mouth, filling her lungs with the exalted rush of his release. She clenches around him and follows, stars bursting like fireworks against her closed eyelids.

His chest is slick under her cheek as he rolls them over and gathers her up against him, his arms wrapped tightly around her still quivering body. Damp lips flirt with her forehead and crown, his fingers stroking through her hair, gently working out the tangles. She lands a messy kiss on his shoulder and tilts her head back, looking up at him.

"Happy New Year, Castle."

He darts in and catches her lips in a smiling kiss, teeth bumping noisily. "Happy New Year." Kate lets her head fall back to his shoulder, fingers drawing lazy patterns over his chest as he sighs, "Thank god the Mayans were wrong."

The silence stretches for a moment and she hides her grin in the sticky skin of his chest until she just can't take it anymore.

"Better not let the mummy hear you say that."


End file.
